The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides 60 percent of the state’s water via a vast network of dams and reservoirs, has already been diminished by human-induced climate change and if emissions levels aren’t reduced, the snowpack could largely disappear during droughts, according to findings in the study published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The recent crisis at Oroville Dam sheds light on an emerging problem for California's aging water resources infrastructure. Professor Alex Hall's research shows that, as temperatures warm in the Sierra Nevada, climate change could precipitate a deluge that will overwhelm a patchwork network of dams and reservoirs that supply 60 percent of the state's water.

Events

Special Event

Water and the Sierra Nevada

6.15.2017

When it comes to water, the Sierra Nevada has always been a feast-or-famine environment. As global temperatures climb with human emissions of greenhouse gases, how will this change? What is the future of the Sierra Nevada, and what does it mean for us?

Projects

Although the last year brought much needed rainfall, California is still facing a long-term drought. In many parts of the state, crops and farmland remain under stress and the state’s agricultural economy is still under threat. One of the most egregious wasters of water is the beef industry, which not only takes valuable water from...